Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Jasson Dominguez endured the worst thing that can happen to a 16-year-old.
Wicked bad acne. Girlfriend outed on OnlyFans. His pet hog's death. He was compared to Mickey Mantle.
Few players ever survive such a fate. The list of disappointments runs from Roger Repoz to Slade Heathcott, from Jackson Melian to Bobby Murcer, from Mick the Quick to Bern Baby Bern. Often, the same horrible situation plays out: A phenom catches the eye of the fevered NY press, and the hype takes on a planet sized reality.
In this case, the planet was Mars. Along with the then-biggest signing bonus in history - Dominguez received a nickname that could propel a man to Cooperstown or drag him to hell, which - from here, anyway - looks a bit like Scranton. He is, of course, The Martian, named for his otherworldly talent. No other player in history has been named for a planet, though I suspect some were called "Your Anus."
Last night, Dominguez enjoyed his second, all-time, history-making, career breakout night this month. He hit a walkoff HR to beat Texas. Three weeks ago, he belted 3 HRs in one game. He seemed to be on his way. But no explosion happened. Since then, he's hit at a .272 pace - 9 for 33.
As The Martian rounded the bases, jubilantly stomping both feet onto home plate, you couldn't help but hope that this was the event for which we've waited 65 years. The next great Yankee switch-hitting CF.
Alas, there is a problem here - and it's pretty much the same one that has bedeviled other Mickey hopefuls since 1951, when Mantle burst onto the scene. But there is a legitimate question as to whether Dominguez will get the chance to prove himself.
Right now, The Martian hits well from only one side of the plate.
It's an issue that has plagued rising Yankee prospects for decades. It stems from the mathematical wonk idiots that have ruined us since 1970 when some coaching dolt decided that Ron Bloomberg should only face right-handed pitchers. So they made him a platoon hitter.
This season, in a still meager sample size, Dominguez is hitting .307 from the left, and a sickly .107 from the right. (Raw numbers: 5 for 46.) We've seen this problem before with switch-hitters. Consider:
Oswaldo Cabrera. Far superior from the left side. In the last two years, the Yankees stopped batting him RH. Last year, as a lefty, he hit .268. From the right side: .190. Career-wise, he's .238 (left) vs .220 (right.) When he returns next year from the gruesome injury, will he be a switch-hitter?
Aaron Hicks. He fared better from the right - .252 vs .222, though more HRs from the left, (a factor of Yankee Stadium.) Often, opposing teams brought in RH pitchers to make him hit lefty.
Chase Headley. His career BA was staggeringly similar from both sides - .263 from the left, .261 from the right. But he was twice as likely to hit HRs from the left.
Mark Teixeira. He hit .287 from the right, .260 from the left - but with far more power from the left. You can argue that Tex was the last balanced switch-hitter to play for the Yankees. And that was 16 years ago.
None never came close to The Mick. Over his career, Mantle hit .329 from the right side, .282 from the left. But his power - 373 HRs (left) vs 163 HRS right - balanced everything out.
Still, we must wonder: If Mantle arrived today, as a raw-boned rookie, would the idiots decide to tweak him? In his rookie season, 1951, age 19, Mantle (overall .267.) batted .295 from the left and .226 from the right. He also hit more HRs from the left (11) than the right (2.) Would the modern Yankees - looking to win a world series - platoon him?
There, I've done it. I've committed blaspheme.
I've compared The Martian to The Mick. God, forgive me.
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24 comments:
GOD FORGIVES YOU, E.D.
As a matter of fact, my sources informed me that he was busy at the time looking into the possibility of suing JM and didn’t mind your comparison at all.
Anybody else miss the Yankees game to watch the Knicks' heartbreaking, sleep-delaying debacle?
Oh, where have you gone Ross Moschitto?
I tuned out of the Yankee game after they fell behind 3-1, did happen to catch the Bellinger homer a bit later though. It was a good night to watch a horror movie, so I watched "The Last Voyage of the Demeter", which turned out to be a very good horror flick, sort of a prequel or tangent to the Dracula story in London. Lots of British actors, so I assume it's a British production. A bit of Hammer vibe, modern style. Nobody does horror as well as the Brits!
Duque, you left out Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada! How is that even possible?
I would think Bernie Williams would have to be the next guy up after Mickey Mantle, as far as the best Yankee switch hitters.
Switch hitting is hard. You have to work twice as hard as other hitters. Just because you're hot from one side of the plate means nothing when you hit from the other side. If you're struggling from one side, that means you have to take extra bp from that side. So combined with the other side of the plate, you've just taken three times as much bp as everyone else!
Mantle hit a lot more homers from the left side, but he faced a lot more right handed pitching and so hit lefthanded a lot more, correct? I wonder what the percentage of at-bats to home runs were for each side of the plate?
I've heard most switch hitters are right handers who learned to hit left handed because they struggled against the right handed pitcher's breaking ball. Most switch hitters are better from the left side because they face a lot more right handed pitching. Some are better from the right side, their natural side, especially at the beginning of their careers, then they become better from the left side and their right handed swing deteriorates later on in their careers.
Bernie Williams was a better right handed hitter through most of his career. It took years for him to catch up from the left side. Towards the end of his career, he was better left handed, whether from injuries or lack of practice right handed.
The Martian right now is obviously much better from the left side. His right side, which is his natural side, is lagging far behind. So this is totally opposite from Bernie Williams.
Dominguez says that it's because he's not getting enough reps from the right side. So he's putting in a lot of work right handed. I think he's going to get much better from the right side. But progress is going to have to be measured month to month, not day to day. His right handed swing is coming around, but progress is incremental and will take awhile.
My personal theory (and this is just speculation, just reading between the lines, because I don't have any inside information) is that he had to shut down his right handed hitting due to the elbow surgery. After the rehab, they must've allowed him to start hitting left handed much earlier than from the right side. So his right side is still "catching up" to the left side. And if this is so, then it'll take a while before you start seeing results. Might even take years.
The good thing about The Martian is that this is a really smart hitter. He's not Volpe or Wells, swinging for the fences on every pitch. He knows what he's doing. So I don't even think he's concerned about the right side. He knows that it'll come around.
It'll be a really stupid shame if they start platooning him. (Imagine if they'd platooned Bernie Williams?) Dominguez has hit moonshots in the minors from the right side, although I'm sure he was always a better hitter left handed, since he probably faced twice as many righty pitchers as lefty pitchers. They might platoon a guy like Oswaldo Cabrera, but Dominguez, who has incredible potential, should be allowed to develop as far as he can go. That means no platoon, for at least six years, while he's under team control.
I have always been very interested in switch hitters because I'm a boxer and martial artist who leads with the right side. So I'm what's called a "southpaw" as opposed to an "orthodox" fighter. Most boxers are orthodox fighters; they lead with the left hand because they are right handed. So their power hand throwing the cross is the right. I am right handed, but I like to lead with my right. This is because I figure that my dominant hand should lead, because the lead hand does 80% of the punching. I had to learn how to throw a left cross. When I fight an orthodox fighter, I have a natural advantage because I fight orthodox fighters all the time, but orthodox fighters rarely face southpaws.
This brings up some odd situations, like sometimes an orthodox fighter turns around and tries to fight southpaw against me. When that happens, I like to turn around and fight orthodox because I like fighting the "mirror image" fighter, rather than the "same side" fighter. But to do that, I have to practice both sides, have to be almost ambidextrous. So I'm kind of like a baseball switch hitter. I have to work twice as hard as other boxers.
It's a bit like the switch hitter in baseball who faces a switch pitcher, which only happened once in the minors. The hitter kept turning around to the other side, and the pitcher kept turning around to the other side. After consulting the rule book, the umpires ruled that the switch pitcher has to commit to one side, then the switch hitter gets the final say on what side to hit from.
Hey, I resemble that remark.
The idea of switch hitting is based on hitting either lefty or righty pitchers better than you would if you just batted from one side. If that isn't happening, why bother?
I think the whole practice of switch hitting is unnecessary. Ruth, Aaron, Mays, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Williams...there are a ton of great hitters who hit from one side of the plate. So, explain to me why switch hitting even exists.
Sue me again, I guess.
Ted Williams, that is. Not Bernie.
It's because they find out in the minors that a batter is simply clueless against the same side pitcher's breaking ball. He can't hit the slider or curve going away from him. So he takes away this advantage from the pitcher by turning around and always facing the opposite side pitcher.
I assume Bernie Williams would've been terrible hitting right handed against righty pitching. That's why he became a switch hitter. It took him years for his left side to catch up with the right side. He was pretty terrible as a lefty hitter for at least a couple of years. I think he struck out five times against Brett Saberhagen in one game, for example. He had zero ability to lay off the breaking ball coming down and in. But Bernie later became a batting champion and earned four World Series Championships. If he didn't switch hit, I don't think he ever becomes a batting champ or wins even one World Series. Hell, he probably wouldn't have even made it to the World Series. The Yankees wouldn't have won in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000.
JM…are you a few legal battles light on your docket?
In fairness, our Peerless Leader did mention Bernie.
The Mick hit from both sides because his father forced him to, from an early age. This sort of forced switching of hands often leads to...bedwetting, which was another Mickey problem. Although that might also have come from having an unbelievably cold mother, a female relative who molested him at an early age, and a father who sat him on the bar for his first drink.
Oh, poor Mick!
The answer is..NO.
While Casey drove some players—see Hank Bauer and Gene Woodling—crazy by platooning them, whenever he had a genuine superstar—see Yogi—he played him full-time.
I'm appealing Hammer's explanation. Filing the paperwork now.
Are we getting rained out today?
Scheduled to start on time 12:37
Peraza heads up baserunning.
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